“We have different beliefs, so let’s respect each other,” Rafi* said to Meilani* after she told him about Jesus. While this is a typical response when our team shares about Christ with people here, we find it is often just the beginning of a conversation about spiritual things. Rafi watched and listened to Meilani and her teammates as they talked about salvation, read Scripture together, and walked out their faith. Soon, Rafi asked Meilani for a Bible that he could read on his own, and now, he and his family have begun sitting with the team as they discuss Scripture together. Pray for Rafi and his family to recognize their need for the Savior, repent, and believe. Also, pray for the many people whose initial response is the rejection of the gospel; pray their hearts will soften as God pursues them, especially that they are open to additional spiritual conversions.

Ezra* is from a people group that is traditionally Christian but followed his wife’s religion when they married. When he heard the gospel from a member of our team, God convicted him, and he repented from abandoning his faith. Recently, Ezra followed through in believer’s baptism and is being discipled. Pray for Ezra as he grows in Christ and boldly shares the love and salvation Christ offers with his friends and family.

As our teams travel around, they follow the Luke 10:7 principle: “And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house.” In some areas, teams find limited or no electricity. Many villages have little knowledge of health and wellness. Recently, a team noticed that the water looked like tea in every home they visited. They realized that locals drink the contaminated water regularly without boiling it. Pray for our teams who eat and drink what is offered to them as they serve the Lord and travel to unreached, unengaged people. Ask the Lord of the harvest to raise up more laborers for each unengaged group.

We are deeply grateful for your generosity, which sent Meilani and her team to Rafi’s village, a team to Ezra’s community, and other teams to areas across Southeast Asia where people have little access to the gospel. Your faithful intercession and gifts undergird our teams as they travel to some of our country’s most unengaged, unreached people groups.

*Names changed

Thank you for sacrificially giving and faithfully interceding for unreached, unengaged people groups (UUGPs) across Southeast Asia. With nearly 200 UUPGs in this region containing over 11 million people, your gifts help us travel to locate, map, and study them so we can share the gospel of Jesus Christ with those who have no access to the gospel.

Five new believers follow Christ. Your partnership made it possible to share the gospel with nearly 2400 people this year. A number decided to follow Christ. We continue seeking out national partners responding to God’s call to share the gospel with others, and we trained 577 in effective evangelism techniques in 2023.

God has called us specifically to work with UUPGs because they have little to no access to the gospel. This year, our team took 24 trips across Southeast Asia and visited 68 UUPGs or unreached cities. In each location, we worked to identify essential linguistic and cultural traits to formulate an evangelism strategy for reaching the people.

Join us in prayer.

• Pray for God’s wisdom as we seek to develop blueprints for sharing the gospel with the nearly 200 UUPGs and 11 million people without gospel access in our region. We strive to follow Jesus’ model: “Father, . . . not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42b).
• In 2024, we plan to open three strategy and evangelism “hubs” to share the gospel among UUPGs. These new hubs allow us to live and work closer to the people God calls us to reach. Ask God to raise up national believers passionate about sharing Christ among UUPGs in the region to lead and coordinate these hubs and begin Bible studies in UUPGs that are more receptive to national partners than our team.

We are immensely grateful for your generosity! Your prayers and gifts address the world’s greatest problem, lostness. Thank you for partnering with us in this ministry.

Love of Neighbors. The government estimates that between 1999 and 2002, around 9000 victims died in the regional conflict between Muslims and Christians. To this day, our team sees the impact of these hostilities. Unfortunately, many believers are still scared and harbor hate in their hearts. Talking with people about loving their enemies and sharing about Jesus feels like an uphill battle.

UUPG Contacts. Recently, our team visited eight UUPGs in this region. They met over 400 people and shared the full gospel with 256 of them. Through the Holy Spirit’s power, six people committed their lives to Christ! We are following up with them, and one of them, a young man named Kam*, has started studying Jesus’ commands with our team.

Prayer requests:

• Pray for people here to release the bitterness in their hearts and love the lost.
• Pray that many who heard the gospel will continue to think about the good news we shared, and for God to make the seeds planted in this region sprout and grow.
• Pray we find local churches near these three new believers to disciple and mentor them. Also, ask God to grow them into gospel carriers to those around them.

Your prayers and gifts help address the world’s greatest problem, lostness. Thank you for partnering with us in this project to identify unreached and unengaged people and share the gospel with them.

*Name changed

Thank you so much for your generous support of our team and one of our primary ministries, “Pushing Back the Darkness Among Unengaged Peoples.” Because of your gift, we are locating and mapping the places unreached and unengaged people groups live (UUPGs) and developing a network to reach them.

Last year, your partnership enabled us to train more than 500 people in how to share the gospel. We also shared the full gospel with over 900 people and saw several people receive Christ! Praise God, the number of unengaged and unreached groups on our list is shrinking! As we research, we discover more about each people group, and sometimes we realize the people are now reached or engaged. We share the good news wherever we go, but so many people are distant and not open to the gospel. Thankfully, on occasion, we find some Christians who live close by the UUPGs.

Prayer requests:

• Pray that Christians living near UUPGs will catch the vision to reach them.
• Please pray we will not become discouraged by the lack of response from UUPGs in the area.
• Continue to ask God to give us a receptive family in each people group, open to the message of Jesus Christ.

Thank you so much for your kindness, generosity, and partnership! Your prayer and gifts are truly making a difference through this project! Please prayerfully consider making another gift to support this ministry in 2023 so we can continue to identify unreached and unengaged peoples and share the gospel with them.

Because of your generosity, long-term workers and national partners visited 16 unengaged unreached people groups (UUPGs) over the last six months. Teams have traveled and shared the gospel, prayed through these areas, and trained other believers to share the gospel. These teams will return to follow up with those interested in hearing more about Jesus.
These teams have also found interested people who believe what we said but have not yet repented. Sometimes we meet Christians from other people groups who live near these unengaged groups.

At times, natural disasters occur where our UPGs live. Because of your gifts, we are ready to meet needs when it does. These are great times to share the love of Christ with them by providing food and supplies. We have helped in several areas lately.

Prayer Requests

• Pray that those who hear will open their hearts and minds to the gospel, repent, and be saved.
• Pray that we can train and mobilize believers who live near the unreached people to share the gospel so more may hear and believe.